Google Play Hubs, Part 3: Play Movies & TV

In part 3 of his series on Google Play Hubs, Eric Butow discusses the Google Play Movies & TV app that comes with your Galaxy Tab 2 by default. You can shop for movies and television shows in the Google Play Store. You can play downloaded movies and TV shows and videos on your Tab 2 within the Play Movies & TV app.

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From the author of

If you want to find movies and television shows within the Google Play Store more quickly than shopping in the Play Store itself, the preinstalled Play Movies & TV app on your Galaxy Tab 2 may be of interest to you. This app allows you to shop for movies and television shows, pay for a movie or showif necessarydownload the movie or show, and then watch the movie or show within the Play Movies & TV app.

Open the Play Movies & TV app by tapping the Apps icon in the home screen, swiping from right to left to view the second page of the Apps screen, and then tapping the Play Movies & TV icon, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 The Play Movies & TV app appears as the second icon from the left within the second row of icons.

When you start the Play Movies & TV app for the first time, the TV Shows category screen appears and you're invited to download a free episode of a TV show from the Play Store so you can get an idea of how the app works.

You can tap the Get Started button shown in Figure 2 to begin. For now, though, we'll continue to explore the Google Play screen.

Figure 2 Download a free television episode by tapping the Get Started button.

A black menu bar appears at the top of the screen. Tap Movies in the menu bar to view list of suggested movies within the Suggestions section shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 The Suggestions section appears near the bottom of the screen.

You can view more movies in the Suggested section by swiping upward on the screen. Each suggested movie tile includes a thumbnail image; the name, release date, and running time of the movie; and a brief synopsis of the film. If you want to view more information about the film in the Google Play Store, tap the movie tile. You can also view more films by tapping the See More from Google Play button at the bottom of the list.

If you already have videos stored on your Tab 2 already, you can view them in the Personal Video section. Tap Personal Video to view list of personal videos stored on your Tab 2, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4 The default Moments of Everyday Life video appears in the Personal Videos screen.

You can start playing the video by tapping the tile. If you want to go back to the Google Play screen, tap anywhere in the video, and then tap the Back icon in the Notification bar. You'll learn more about video playback controls later in this article.

At the right side of the menu bar, tap the Shop icon in either the Movies or TV shows screen within the Google Play Store. Featured movies or TV shows appear in the Featured page.

In this article, I'll show the Movies & TV screen shown in Figure 5 that appears after you tap the Shop icon in the Movies page within the Play Movies & TV app.

Figure 5 The Featured section spotlights the newest films available for purchase and download.

You can view a list of movie and television topic categories by swiping from left to right on the screen. View other section pages, including top-selling movies, new movie releases, top TV shows, and new TV episodes by swiping from right to left on the screen. Swipe from left to right to view sections you've already seen or the category list. You can return to the Play Movies & TV app by tapping the Back button in the Notification bar.

Download Free TV Show Episodes

In this article, I'll download a free episode from a television show that's available when you tap the Get Started button in the TV Shows screen as you saw in Figure 2. The Google Play Store screen appears and displays a list of free episodes for download in the Free TV Episodes section. Each episode tile contains a thumbnail image, the television name, the episode name, when the episode was made available in the Play Store, and the price (which in this case is Free).

When you find a tile for the TV show that you want to download, tap the tile to open the details screen for the show (see Figure 6).

Figure 6 The details screen shows a synopsis of the TV series on the right side of the screen.

In this example, I opened the screen for Once Upon a Time, and you can download an episode of this series for free to determine your interest in other episodes. Scroll up and down the episodes for the most recent season that was produced. Tap the name of the episode if you want to view more information about the episode underneath it.

Tap the price button to the right of the episode name to purchase it. In the Options window, determine whether you want to purchase the standard definition (SD) version or the high definition (HD) version by tapping the appropriate button. When you're ready, tap Continue. Then you'll be asked to pay for the episode in the payment window. Even if you're buying a free episode, you have to use your card on file with the Google Wallet e-payment service or add your card information.

Once you enter your card information, download the movie by tapping the I Agree to the Payments for Google Play check box and then tapping the Accept & Buy button.